School of thought

Yogacara

School

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Classification

Period
c. 350-700 CE
Regions
south asia, east asia
Domains
Logic , Metaphysics , Philosophy of Mind

Overview

Yogacara ('Practice of Yoga') is a diverse Mahayana Buddhist school concerned with the structure and transformation of consciousness on the path to liberation. Its mind-only or consciousness-only teaching gives cognition priority in explaining the experienced world, but scholars dispute whether it is best read as metaphysical idealism, epistemic idealism, or a phenomenological analysis that leaves ontological questions open. Yogacara also developed an eightfold model of consciousness that includes the alaya-vijnana (storehouse consciousness).

Key ideas

  • Consciousness-Only: In the strands that defend this teaching, sensible objects are known as appearances within cognition and experiences arise through mental causes. Whether this denies a mind-independent reality or instead limits what can be claimed about it remains disputed.
  • Alaya-Vijnana: The storehouse consciousness underlies all experience, containing 'seeds' (bija) deposited by past actions that ripen into future perceptions and experiences.
  • Three Natures: This teaching distinguishes the imagined nature of false projections, the dependent nature of causally conditioned experience, and the perfected nature disclosed when the imagined is absent from the dependent.

Key figures

Asanga · Vasubandhu · Dignaga · Dharmakirti

Influenced by

Later connections

References

  • Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Yogācāra
  • Paul Williams, Mahāyāna Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations (2nd ed., Routledge, 2009)
  • Thirty Verses on Consciousness-Only — Vasubandhu (trans. Thomas Kochumuttom)
  • Seven Works of Vasubandhu — Stefan Anacker